Windows Spotlight lock screen picture won't change

Anonymous
2018-02-09T16:26:33+00:00

Hello,

I have an HP laptop running Windows 10, and usually when my laptop is locked, the picture changes every now and then on my lock screen and I really enjoyed that. But recently for the past month or two, it's been stuck on the same picture and it stopped changing to new pictures. I checked my settings and I still have "Windows Spotlight" set as my lock screen but still nothing happens. It just stopped working and changing pictures for some reason.

If anyone can help, please do!

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows Hello, lock screen and sign-in

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Anonymous
2018-05-22T00:04:55+00:00

Just follow these steps of Windows Central:

How to fix Windows Spotlight Lock screen errors Is Windows Spotlight broken or stuck on the same image? If so, this guide details the steps to fix the issue.

Windows Spotlight is a feature included with Windows 10 that uses Bing to automatically download and set new background images on the Lock screen, to keep your experience fresh every time you sign in.

The only caveat with Windows Spotlight is that sometimes it will stop working, or you'll notice that it gets stuck on the same image. Unfortunately, Windows 10 doesn't include an option to reset this feature. However, it's possible to fix the Windows Spotlight settings with this simple workaround.

In this Windows 10 guide, we show you the steps to fix Windows Spotlight on your computer and keep getting fresh images from Bing on your Lock screen.

How to reset Windows Spotlight

If the Windows Spotlight feature is stuck on the same image, or it's not working at all, you can use the following steps to fix the issue:

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Click on Personalization.
  3. Click on Lock screen.
  4. Under "Background," make sure Windows Spotlight is NOT selected and change the option to Picture or Slideshow.
  5. Use the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run command.
  6. Type the following path and click OK. %USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets
  7. Select all the files (Ctrl + A) and hit the Delete key to clear all old images (if applicable).
  8. Use the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run command again.
  9. Type the following path to where the Windows Spotlight settings are stored and click OK. %USERPROFILE%/AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\Settings
  10. Right-click settings.dat and roaming.lock individually, then click Rename and name them settings.dat.bak and roaming.lock.bak.
  11. Restart your computer.
  12. Open Settings.
  13. Click on Personalization.
  14. Click on Lock screen.
  15. Under "Background," make sure to enable Windows Spotlight.

Once you complete these steps, you can lock your PC (Windows key + L), and the Lock screen should show new Bing images.

If everything worked as expected, remember to go back to the Settings folders where Windows Spotlight stores the settings and delete the settings.dat.bak and roaming.lock.bak files.

Alternative method to fix Windows Spotlight

If the steps mentioned above didn't fix Windows Spotlight, you can try to reset the settings using the following steps:

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Click on Personalization.
  3. Click on Lock screen.
  4. Under "Background," make sure to enable Windows Spotlight. (If you don't enable the feature, you're likely to get an error while running the PowerShell command.)
  5. Open Start.
  6. Search for Windows PowerShell, right-click the result, and select Run as administrator.
  7. Enter the following command and press Enter to reset the Windows Spotlight: Get-AppxPackage -allusers *ContentDeliveryManager* | foreach {Add-AppxPackage "$($_.InstallLocation)\appxmanifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode -register }
  8. Restart your computer.

After completing these steps, you should be able to lock your PC (Windows key + L), and the Lock screen should show new Bing images.

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-fix-windows-spotlight-stuck-same-image-windows-10?passport=1526946645

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-03-28T06:25:56+00:00

    Update: After a few days, the picture finally started changing, but it seems MS doesn't always change it every day, sometimes every 2 or 3 days, but it does seem to be working now. So wait a few days and see if it re-syncs. 

    Well, I have waited more than a few days, more like a few months...

    There is one more thing - the picture is missing those info lines you can press to have some info about it.

    The weird thing is that we have several accounts on the computer and some accounts don't have that problem while the others do.

    Deleting an account and adding it back does solve the problem but only for a few days.

    I tried everything but installing a fresh copy. For some reason I feel like it won't solve it...

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-03-28T08:32:34+00:00

    In my case I did have to change my region (found under Time & Language > Region in Settings), in addition to carrying out the procedure described at the top of this thread, in order for Spotlight to start working again - A Windows upgrade (as in a version upgrade) or an online Cumulative Update will disable Spotlight if either of these is carried out on the original (i.e. initially installed) Windows system before the region change. It's a bug I discovered after several hours of experimentation with my various Windows images.

    Hope this cuts down on trial-and-error time for others.

    Cheers.

    Not sure what worked for me, but yesterday evening I did almost everything mentioned in this thread:

    • both methods suggested by Lucas T. on May 22, 2018;
    • method suggested by Anton Thelander on August 26, 2019;
    • switching region to US.

    Nothing helped me that evening and I went to sleep.

    This morning I switched my PC on, it took unusually long time to show initial logon screen but there was perfect shiny working Spotlight lock screen!

    Thanks everybody in this thread!

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-03-28T12:24:52+00:00

    Anyway, last evening windows spotlight was no longer working again. It just stopped.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-03-28T20:08:12+00:00

    OMG!

    This one actually works!

    I've change my region to United States and few hours later I've received a new Spotlight photo.

    Goto Settings -> Time & Language -> Region

    Change 'Country or region' to United States

    That's all.

    Now let's just hope it will last... :)

    Since my original region is not the US, I wonder if this problem appears only on non-US defined region installations...

    Anyways, thanks AlexeyAlexeevich1!

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